On January 6, 1961, Seattle City Light completes Gorge High Dam on the upper Skagit River, in southeast Whatcom County. The dam is 300 feet high. The combination gravity-arch concrete structure diverts water to a tunnel, which connects to a powerhouse two miles downstream.
The project ultimately cost approximately $29 million, twice the original estimate.
Sources:
Paul C. Pitzer, Building the Skagit: A Century of Upper Skagit Valley History, 1870-1970 (Portland: The Galley Press, 1988), 54.
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